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Advice on killing a hive

I have one that has as always had an attitude but workable. I was going to requeen it this year. Well where I have it at a cow got out and knocked it over about 2 weeks ago. I went out to fix it in 40deg weather thinking they would be cold and I could fix it. As soon as I got close they were all over me. Tried smoking, nothing. They are not happy at all. So I said screw it and covered them with a heavy black tarp and figured I would kill them off and save the equipment. Well I went to gather the equipment today and they chewed some holes thru the tarp and were bringing in pollen. They weren't near as busy as before or as they should be, but they aren't near dead. Any ideas on the best way to kill them off without spraying? Lots of good drawn out frames worth saving.

Chuck Norris has a grizzly bear carpet in his room. The bear isn't dead it is just afraid to move.

Re: Advice on killing a hive

If they were mine I would put on enough clothes to weather the storm and put them back together. They sound like my most productive colony. Mine require smoke and a full set of clothes. Good Luck and keep us informed! I know you can handle them!

Re: Advice on killing a hive

Originally Posted by Myron Denny

If they were mine I would put on enough clothes to weather the storm and put them back together. They sound like my most productive colony. Mine require smoke and a full set of clothes. Good Luck and keep us informed! I know you can handle them!

I'm doing it! Just told the wife she will need to make sure I am duct taped up real good then she can go. Great hive. Good producers. Just has a temper. All natural not treatments and they have been rocking the last couple years. I'll take some pics. Best I can anyway.

Chuck Norris has a grizzly bear carpet in his room. The bear isn't dead it is just afraid to move.

Re: Advice on killing a hive

Don't kill them!

It is not the worker bee's fault. It is the mean old queen. Get rid of her off the big hive. Put in a nice young gentle queen. And everything will be calm and gentle again.

I got a really mean hive with lots of bees before. After I put in a new queen then everything is back to normal. I don't have to wear my veil now on a hive check. I don't use a smoker either. I have both and a full body bee suit as well.

The worker bees are innocent here. So don't kill them off also. They done nothing wrong only to listen to the mean old queen, that's all. Her hormones had gone wild.

You can do it a night time if you want to when they are much calmer than the day time. Since the hives are only tipped off just split them up into new hives. Then put in new queens for as many hives as you can manage. Later on you will have nice gentle hive to give you lots of honey too. Don't have to kill all of them off.
A smaller hive will not show aggressiveness that they barely have enough guard bees to keep themselves warm at night time. Now that I know how to manage aggressive hives the splitting idea is good to use.

Re: Advice on killing a hive

Originally Posted by odfrank

>You can do it a night time if you want to when they are much calmer than the day time.

Famous last words....

I was thinking the same!

Re-queening a wild hive is never much fun but I would not kill the bees. With spring approaching it is quite possible the bees will superseed the queen.
These days with full suits it should be possible to have a go.

Re: Advice on killing a hive

Do you have a similarly productive hive to make a queen from? Sure, requeening should make them more docile, but if you give them a queen from somewhere else, you also lose all the resiliency and ability to survive and productivity that you might like in that hive. Let them requeen themselves, if you can and if you want to try to preserve the line.

Re: Advice on killing a hive

I had a hive like this last year. I really hated to kill them off, but I have young boys and we couldn't get within 25 feet of them, didn't have another safe place to move them, and had some scheduled activities with a lot of people so I couldn't wait for the new queen. Tried dry ice twice. Finally just went in with my bee vac. Dropped the hole mean mess in the freezer, then split the brood and stores into other hives. That makes the other ones maybe a little more aggressive but it was mixed in and not a problem. One option, not the best though.

Re: Advice on killing a hive

ANY hive that got knocked over will be pissy. I have had great hives vandilzed several times in the last years, every one was pissy for WEEKS afterwards..... bees are like us... we let friends come and go and were cool... first time the TV is broken and the house torn up nobody is allowed in the house!